EPIDEMIOLOGY OF ADENOVIRUS-ASSOCIATED VIRUS INFECTION IN A NURSERY POPULATION1

Abstract

Blacklow, N. R., M. D. Hoggan (Lab. Viral Diseases, N.I.A.I.D., N.I.H., Bethesda, Md. 20014), A. Z. Kapikian, J. B. Austin and W. P. Rowe. Epidemiology of adeno-virus-associated virus infection in a nursery population. Amer. J. Epid., 1968, 88: 368–378.—Adenovirus-associated viruses (AAV) are a group of defective viruses that replicate only in cell cultures infected with adenovirus. They have been isolated from children resident at Junior Village in Washington, D.C. This report is a detailed epidemiologic study of these children during an 8-week period in 1965. AAV 2 and/or AAV 3 was isolated from 23 of the 101 children resident in the nursery cottage. Virus was detected in anal swab specimens of all 23 children, and in throat specimens of 6. The presence of AAV serum neutralizing antibody did not preclude virus isolation; however, preexisting neutralizing antibody was not present in children who repeatedly shed AAV or from whom AAV was recovered from the throat. AAV was closely associated with adeno-virus infection since adenovirus was isolated on the same date as 34 of the 36 AAV isolates. There was no indication that any one particular adenovirus serotype was associated with AAV infection; ten different adenovirus serotypes were isolated from AAV-positive specimens. There was no evidence of illness attributable to AAV infection.